


a feather drifting on the desert wind

by wrennette



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Force Sensitive Finn, Gen, Long distance communication via the Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-12 02:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7080805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrennette/pseuds/wrennette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's always had feelings, trusted her instincts. Her snap intuition has made the difference more than once, in determining whether she is victor or dinner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a feather drifting on the desert wind

At first she isn't sure what it is, this strange, foreign but familiar feeling. She's always had feelings, trusted her instincts. Her snap intuition has made the difference more than once, in determining whether she is victor or dinner. But this feeling is such a small thing, faint and fluttering as she meditates at Master Luke’s side as the Falcon screams back toward D’Qar. 

When she tries to quantify it, identify and categorize it, the feeling is the immensity of the desert sky and the metallic burn in the back of her throat when she’s been too long in the salt flats without water. It is the soft scudding hiss of individual grains of sand tossed by a light breeze. She focuses down, Maz Kanata’s words echoing in her head. The Force sings around her, and the feeling is the unforgiving blue heavens and the glittering gold sand, and it is calling her name.

_Rey_ the desert sings in her mind, but the voice does not belong to the desert. The desert’s voice is metallic and slightly hollow. It is the iron tang of blood thick on her tongue, the cold bite of the first snow she’d ever seen, the comforting warmth of a larger hand wrapping around hers. It is the immensity of space. 

_Finn?_ Rey can’t help but ask in her mind, and the desert swells with warmth. 

This is her, Rey thinks. The desert is how Finn sees her. She sends her feelings of Finn back, his large warm hand, the sweaty musk that had clung to him under the Jakku sky, the strength of his arms and surety of his eyes. Inchoate feelings tumbled into her awareness, warmth and welcome and fear and loneliness. It took a little longer for Rey to realize that Finn was not awake, or at least was not fully aware. 

Finn was healing still, she thought, suspended still in the coma of recuperation. The thought both heartens and disappoints her. She does not like to think of Finn as she last saw him, so still on the bed in the infirmary. Finn, so distant and yet so close, feels her distress, and his feelings shift. He sends his awareness of himself, his awareness even of visitors, people talking to him. He sends his pleasure that she had defeated Kylo Ren and then found the legendary Luke Skywalker. He sends his warm anticipation of her homecoming.

The Falcon is a speedy bucket of bolts, when all is said and done, and they make good time back to D’Qar. What time it does take is filled with Rey’s Jedi training exercises, and she doesn’t mind those, especially when she meditates, because she can feel Finn then. As they daily draw closer, Rey begins to think she can feel Finn more strongly. His presence solidifies from the gentle hiss of sand against the shell of her AT-AT to the whirlwind of a sandstorm, although without the choking pain.

With increased proximity, not only does Finn’s presence gain strength, it gains subtlety and nuance. Or perhaps that is due to Rey’s advancing abilities with the Force granting her greater perception and understanding. But they are able to - converse is the wrong word. But there is more coherent communication between them, and each time Rey reaches for Finn in the Force, it is easier, the bond between them stronger and more sure. Although still comatose, Finn hears and feels a great deal, and can update Rey on the goings on at the Resistance base. Rey tells Finn about the wonders of the universe, and tries to convey her new understanding of the Force as well. He must be at least a little Force Sensitive, Rey thinks, otherwise she would not be able to feel him so strongly. 

They are three jumps from D’Qar when Finn’s presence brightens in Rey’s mind. It feels like the sun, Rey thinks, the pleasant morning sun, that is warm and kind, luminous after the cold desert night. Rey reaches out instinctively, meeting Finn mind to mind. His sending is not only stronger, but more rapid, emotions and impressions tumbling toward her so quickly she can barely understand. She is reminded again of the adrenaline spiking in her blood after their running battle as they escaped Jakku, standing with Finn in the belly of the Falcon and talking over one another, ecstatic in the continuation of their existence.

Rey sends the calming blue depths of Ahch-to, the echoes of swampy green Dagobah she has gleaned from Master Luke. Finn quiets slightly, not a dimming of his light in the least, but a restraint. Rey is reminded he is a soldier born and raised, trained from infancy to follow orders, although he is not very good at doing so unquestioning. But that is well and good, because it is that which brought them together. Finn tells her though of Poe, BB-8’s pilot, and of his own recovery, and the intercepted First Order communiques that Finn has been deciphering while he’s regaining his strength, the Resistance codes he has been learning. He is a soldier yet, and perhaps always will be. 

When Rey sets the Falcon down, light as a feather drifting on the desert wind, Finn is in the welcoming party. He leans heavily on another man, lean and goldie-tan skinned, with thick dark hair and a bit of rough stubble on his jaw. This is Poe Dameron, Rey knows, although they haven’t spoken to one another yet. But the trust between Finn and Poe is clear, and that is enough for Rey. She launches herself down the ramp, and is soon enfolded in Finn’s strong arms. 

The feel of Finn is almost overwhelming in person. His presence swells around her, and she clings to him in response. Rey has very much enjoyed her time with Master Luke, has appreciated the time of meditation and quiet instruction. She’s been able to, for the first time, contemplate a future beyond when her faceless family returned. She still doesn’t know quite what that future will contain, but she knows that Finn would be at her side.


End file.
